Former supermodel Naomi Campbell hit back at a British watchdog after that banned her from running a charity for five years.
The Charity Commission identified “several instances of misconduct” in the running of Fashion for Relief, including the use of charity funds to pay for her stay at a five-star hotel in the south of France, including spa treatments and room service.
But Campbell, 54, called the body’s findings “deeply flawed” and said she had instructed new advisers to investigate what happened at the charity.
“First and foremost, I realize that as the face of Fashion for Relief, I am ultimately responsible for its behavior,” Campbell, 54, said in a statement released late Friday to the PA news agency.
Hollie Adams/REUTERS
“Unfortunately, I was not involved in the day-to-day operations of the organization, and I entrusted the legal and operational management to others,” she said.
The watchdog survey, published on Thursday, found that between April 2016 and July 2022, only 8.5% of Fashion for Relief’s total spending went to charitable contributions.
Campbell has now been disqualified from running a charity for five years. Two other trustees were also banned.
Campbell, who in 1987 became the first black model in 20 years to appear on the cover of UK Vogue, achieved worldwide fame in the 1990s and remains a highly influential figure in the industry.
She insisted that she had “never received any fee for my participation in Fashion for Relief nor been billed for any personal expenses to the organization.”
Campbell’s charity, which she started in 2005, held a series of glitzy, star-studded fundraising events in London and Cannes.
These were said to include projects ranging from supporting refugee children to helping victims of the Ebola crisis and the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami.
She said she is considering all options, including requesting an appeal.